Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Escalator of Writing

This video made me giggle up a storm. I thought it would be fun to share with you today. Hopefully, you can get a good chuckle out of it. It is very snarfable, indeed. However, as I watched it again, I thought it related to writing a great deal. Writing is like walking up the down escalator—it is not easy. Some finish. Some don’t.

Here’s how it relates to writing:

Man # 1: The man in the brown jacket worked tirelessly to get to the top, yet gave up. He turned around, not willing to try anymore regardless of how hard he worked to get to the end goal. In writing, the evil master of discouragement is always lurking in the shadows, willing away the diligent writer to cease honing their craft. Ultimately, they stash their project on the shelf and forget about it.

Man # 2: The man in the blue jacket started out running up the escalator with fervent excitement, slowing down as he went. Barely reaching the top, he buckled and gave up. Writing is electrifying at times. Ideas are bursting with colors from your fingertips as you type. Here again, at some point, you get worn out and can’t go any farther. This could be a moment of writer’s block or anything that diminishes your desire to write.

Man # 3: The man in the black jacket made it, even with almost taking a spill as he reached the top. But, he finished and that’s what matters. He didn’t give up, turn back, or cease the struggle until he was on sturdy ground at the top. Writing is a fight to finish your WIP. The published writer follows through with their love of writing. Any discouragement, occasional writer’s block, or difficult suggestions from a beta will not hold them back. They make it happen! They reach the top regardless of how difficult it is.

Writers, let’s be the Number Three Man. Make it to sturdy ground! We can get there with a lot of work and love for writing. Let’s never stop writing until we’re at the top—published!

3 comments:

The big lesson I've learned from it is, writing is tiring work where a writer could go for days revising the same scene only to find it's still not the way it should be. At some point the decision comes: To give up on it or keep on going. Sometimes, the writer will throw the whole scene out, sometimes...shelve the whole book...instead of working with it, playing with it, nurturing it.

The writer's life is filled with challenges. It's all a matter of overcoming those challenges in an effort to reach to the top of the escalator.

I think another aspect that tempts us (me anyway) to give up in our writing is we worry that no one will like what we've written. Elizabeth Gilbert says in Committed, that when she was writing Eat, Pray, Love, she was usually convinced that not many people would read her work. And look what happened!

Now, we might not have her success as a writer, but we shouldn't let our worries be an excuse for not continuing to write.

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I'm Julia King, a Young Adult writer from Utah. I work in the medical field by day and write by night. I enjoy reading, music (especially U2), the outdoors, and traveling. I'm a TV junky. I love chocolate. I adore dogs, miniature beagles to be exact. And I love creating stories. Enjoy!

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